Am I religious? Not really. Do I go to church,? Yes. Did I always? Ha!! Do I believe everything that is said there? No. Does my pastor waive his finger at me and say I should come to the same conclusions with him? No. Does he wish I would? Maybe. Do I know the bible inside and out? No. Am I going to spend the rest of my life becoming a bible scholar so I can have heady discussions? No. Do I love some scripture? Yes. Do I use it to try and be correct, or right? No, never. Not anymore anyway. Am I afraid of other religions, (not counting cults)? No, not anymore. Am I liberal? No. Am I a conservative? No. Am I a hippie? Kinda…:-) Am I an artist? Absolutely, always, no doubt. Would I have said that two years ago? No. Am I deep into this Advent season because it is what I’ve done my whole life so I just do it? No, this really is my first time. A virgin. I’m staying open and realizing everything is sacred. Theology that says to me this world, this reality, this me, are “bad”, is wearing thin. In this process of doing mosaics I continually see how darkness is NOT overcome. Is it overcome by a lot of words and should’s and have tos? No. Is most of my spirituality experiential? Yes. Do I feel the need to back it up with words sometimes? Yes. Are those words all from the Bible? No. Are grace and nature one in the same for me? Yes. Is Advent about waiting for baby Jesus to be born? No. For me, it is a time to be in the dark and be okay with that because I learn so much in the dark and that is where I wait to see what will be transformed. I haven't ever had a transcendent experience in the bright sunlight, any transformation in me happens in the dark. It is quiet and peaceful in the dark although the not knowing is a little scary. Lack of understanding, doubt, and my brokenness all part of the process, I accept them readily. This quote has helped me understand why I do what I do. St. Thomas called art “reason in making.” This is a very cold and very beautiful definition, and if it is unpopular today, this is because reason has lost ground among us. As grace and nature have been separated, so imagination and reason have been separated, and this always means an end to art. The artist uses her reason to discover an answering reason in everything she sees. For her, to be reasonable is to find, in the object, in the situation, in the sequence, the spirit which makes it itself. This is not an easy or simple thing to do. It is to intrude upon the timeless, and that is only done by the violence of a single-minded respect for the truth. —Flannery O’Connor